It is well known that for both residential and commercial buildings in northern climates where winters can generate substantially freezing temperatures with snow and ice, that the tracking in of such snow and ice by persons entering the building can lead to a number of problems. One problem being the issue of safety where snow and ice melting and falling off the footwear of a wearer can cause certain surfaces, for example, tile, stone, concrete and even wood, to become very slippery and dangerous to walk on. This issue is particularly relevant in high traffic areas of commercial structures where accidents and injuries, accompanying such slippery surfaces, raise liability issues for property owners.
Also in cold weather and snowy environments, the wearing of footwear, e.g., boots, shoes and sneakers, for example, track contaminants into the building with the ice and snow. Dirt, road salts, as well as oil from parking lots or any other type of debris which can be suspended in snow and ice, come into the building with the wearer's footwear. This means that upon crossing a threshold without taking off such footwear, the wearer and the boots will track the contaminate laden snow and ice into the building which can be significantly detrimental to floor surfaces, in particular wood surfaces or tile and stone surfaces, for example.
It is well known to use floor mats, rugs or carpets both inside and outside of entrances to assist in melting snow off the soles and sidewalls of a person's footwear. Also in some commercial settings, grates are placed outside or inside adjacent entrances to permit snow, ice and even water falling off a person's footwear to fall through the grate and into a catch basin before the person enters the building.
Certain devices have been used to scrub the bottom sole, and even the side sole of a person's footwear by utilizing brushes and even saturating the brushes with water and detergent to facilitate cleaning the shoes. The draw back to such devices is that only one person can use them at a time, and they often require a particular intent, desire and effort upon the part of the user to take the time and effort to clean off their footwear. Furthermore, such devices can cause accidents as they are generally located in high traffic areas where people can get at them, and are set above the level of the floor where someone might trip or stumble over such a device, of course, this is very dangerous in the vicinity of an entrance.